Design of Reinforced Earth Wall Using Pond Ash - A laboratory study

Abstract

Pond ash produced as a by-product of the coal based thermal plants whose disposal is often a major environmental and economic issue. Reinforced earth wall is preferred over conventional RCC rigid retaining wall as it is not only cost effective but also has better performances during earthquake. But it uses the natural resources sand as the fill material. In this work, a possible use of pond ash and its mixture with sand as a fill material for reinforced earth wall is investigated. The major issue about the use of pond as a fill material is the development of shear resistance or pull out capacity. In this work the shear behaviour of pond ash, sand and its mixture is studied. A polymeric reinforcement is considered and the friction between the polymeric reinforcement and the pond ash mixture is studied using a laboratory pull out test. Experiments have been conducted on a model of the pond ash mix with reinforcement. The results have been compared with the simulation using a finite element based commercial software, PLAXIS 2D.